Dear Supporters

Today, we formally submitted our petition, "Deutschlandticket: Time for Fair Play in the Canine Commute," to the Federal Ministry for Digital and Transport and Deutsche Bahn. What began as an open letter grew into a national project, thanks to your voices, stories and unwavering support.

Our Final Demand:
We called for an end to the discriminatory pricing and treatment of dogs on public transport. Dogs should either be recognised as passengers with fair pricing and facilities or travel for free, like luggage. The current system is indefensible, and the time for change is now.

What Happens Now?
The petition is closed, and the decision is up to the authorities, but pressure remains on Germany until it aligns its policies with fairness, accessibility and sustainability.

Thank You
To every supporter, journalist and traveller who spoke up: thank you. You exposed the inequity. You made the absurdity clear. The next move is theirs.

🐾

With near 30 days left in the active phase of this campaign, it feels like the right moment to reflect and say a heartfelt thank you.

Thanks to your engagement, we’ve successfully activated over 1,000 people around the simple but powerful idea that fairness for dog owners on trains matters. That’s no small feat - especially given how little public awareness or media attention this issue tends to receive.

To put it in perspective: we represent roughly 0.1% of dog owners in Germany. We don’t believe that reflects the true level of frustration many feel. The fact that dog owners are still expected to pay €30 or more for a single train journey with their companions to travel in cramped, muzzled conditions - entirely at the mercy of inconsistent policies and other passengers - is deeply unfair and frankly, an unkind system that needs change.

We’ve reached out to hundreds of organisations, contacted media outlets and done our best to stir up conversation on social media. But truthfully, the steam for continued outreach has run out. With only a month left, we’ll begin preparing the final submission of this petition and leave the rest in the hands of fate (or perhaps, the next campaigner who picks up the cause).

Massive thanks to everyone who signed, commented, made suggestions and shared the petition. Your voices have shaped this campaign.

As a final gesture, the comments section will be transferred to a searchable database - so that journalists, researchers and interested parties can better understand the shared concerns, lived experiences and common frustrations behind the signatures.

Maybe this isn’t the end - just the first chapter. 🐾

After days of copy-pasting press contacts, my brain may have melted slightly, because no, 3 people per signer does not magically get us to 30,000 but 3,000. A case of fatigued optimism over basic arithmetic. Still, the point stands: it’s about reaching a tipping point.

Over 350 press emails have gone out across the country, and... crickets. It seems this campaign isn’t considered headline-worthy. PR and social media aren’t exactly our home turf, so if you’ve got experience in either and a few sharp ideas, we’d love to hear from you.

There are two months left before this campaign is shelved. Two months to push, build momentum and show that this issue does matter.

Request #1
The platform hosting the petition hasn’t made it easy to access supporter comments in a usable format. If you know how to build a simple web scraper, that would help immensely.

Request #2
So far, we’ve reached out to vets, dog trainers, pet stores, dog clubs and animal welfare groups. What we could really use now is a bit of celebrity endorsement. If you have a connection to a Martin Rütter type or other public animal advocate, please consider giving them a nudge.

If you can share, connect, advise, or help in any way - now is the time.